Photos: Heritage chickens top of research centre’s pecking order

They squawk and peck and, undoubtedly, they smell. But hundreds of “heritage chickens” at the Poultry Research Centre have been adopted by Edmontonians.

This is the New Hampshire chickens, one of five heritage breeds trying to be preserved by selling farm free eggs to the general public at the University of Alberta’s Poultry Research Centre in Edmonton, March 22, 2013. For a $75 fee, consumers can adopt a heritage chicken and in turn, pick up a dozen eggs every two weeks.